Francis of Assisi, the storied Catholic monk, is frequently credited with uttering some version of the following: “Preach the Gospel at all times; use words if necessary.” He didn’t actually say this, but even unsubstantiated proverbs from wise people can be instructive. Ignoring its provenance, I thought about that famous quotation when I learned that some parishioners recently attended a “sermon” that had been created by ChatGPT.
The setting was St. Paul’s Church in the German town of Fuerth. Kirsten Grieshaber, who is a Berlin-based reporter for the Associated Press, witnessed the event. She wrote: “The ChatGPT chatbot, personified by an avatar of a bearded Black man on a huge screen above the altar… began preaching to the more than 300 people who had shown up… for an experimental Lutheran church service almost entirely generated by AI.”
Jonas Simmerlein, who Grieshaber describes as “a theologian and philosopher from the University of Vienna”, assisted the chatbot, but states that “about 98% (of the sermon) comes from the machine”. Simmerlein’s conclusion? “You end up with a pretty solid church service.”
Actually, you don’t – if you believe in the God of the Bible. There are amazing things that technology can achieve, many of which are inconceivable for humans to attempt. Yet, there are other things that are complete folly for technology to attempt. That includes preaching the Gospel.
You can’t simply upload words or thought experiments into an algorithm and receive something that is divinely inspired in return – even if those words originate from the most widely read book in history. It is an ill-advised proposition to expect soulless technology to deliver spiritual sustenance. Likewise, you can’t download the Holy Spirit from a “machine” (as Mr. Simmerlein called it). Attempting to do so is consonant with the highly disturbing trend of supplanting worship with entertainment.
As a devout Christian, it is extremely difficult for me to understand how a person of faith could accept a chatbot “sermon”. It’s one thing for a ChatGPT to create an essay for a student; that’s an ethical issue, but a temporal one. By contrast, for the overwhelming majority of us who believe in the God of the Bible, sermons address eternal questions.
Other examples abound. Several years ago, I listened to a news story in which an atheist discussed “praying”, but not to God (or even a god). He called it a “secular prayer”. The problem with that notion is that prayer requires both a subject and an object (i.e., the deity to whom one is praying). If one doesn’t believe in a deity (i.e., the “object” of prayer), why bother? That makes no sense logically, let alone theologically.
Probability suggests that at least one person who reads this will ask: “What if ChatGPT generated the aphorism that is credited to Friar Francis?” In response, I offer the “Infinite Monkey Theorem”. This philosophical proposition suggests that if an infinite number of monkeys has an infinite number of typewriters and an infinite amount of time, they will eventually type (for example) all of Shakespeare’s plays.
The implication is that the monkeys would “create” great literature by chance rather than by intellect. (Some mathematicians doubt this theorem, but that’s not the point.) Humanity created artificial intelligence; that makes AI a facsimile. Since AI doesn’t even rise to the level of mere humanity (as C.S. Lewis might put it), by definition its byproducts are not divinely inspired. (And, yes, I know that my atheistic friends believe that humans “created” God; that’s a different discussion.)
We rely on preachers to share wisdom that is based not only on ethereal theology, but also from their human experience. From what experience can a chatbot base its “sermon”? Did the chatbot pray before “preparing” its sermon? If a chatbot can produce a sermon, we might as well build a theology from fortune cookies.
To be crystal clear, I support the inherent right of any person to draw meaning from any source that he or she finds to be compelling. Similarly, I support the inherent right of any person to believe whatever he or she desires regarding the existence of God, and to act upon said belief (or disbelief) in any way that does not harm others physically, emotionally, psychologically, or spiritually. I simply exercise my inherent right to believe as I do.
The theme of the event in Fuerth was “Now is the time”. Indeed, Mr. Simmerlein gave ChatGPT that phrase when he ordered it to create a sermon. I argue that now is the time to reject artificial paths to genuine faith.
